When members have been injured or become ill, whether they've come and reported it or somebody in the system has noticed it and asked them to have an assessment, their caregivers will usually take some time to evaluate their condition and try to see whether or not there is going to be much of a shift in those members' condition. The individual who has been wounded in Iraq, unfortunately, is not in a temporary medical category yet. He won't be in a medical category for some time, because we're going to need time to be able to assess and evaluate him. I think it's probably two, three, or sometimes six months before even the first temporary medical category may be assigned to an individual as the individual goes through the care workup and assessment.
A temporary category is usually six months. After an initial period of six months on a temporary category, very rarely would we put somebody in a permanent category. Almost always that person will have a second temporary category of six months. Usually after that second temporary category of six months, we are now well over a year into the process of this individual's illness or injury, so we are starting to get a good idea of what the prognosis is going to be. After that second temporary category, if we have good visibility of that prognosis, we may assign a permanent medical category.
There are conditions, however, where depending on the complexity of the case, it may take up to two years before a permanent medical category is assigned. After a permanent medical category is assigned, there is then the administrative process that has to be undertaken, and that can take six months to a year before a decision is made with respect to universality of service compliance. It's only at that time that a decision is made as to whether or not the individual will be released or be able to be retained within the Canadian Forces. Once that decision is made, I believe there is typically another six-month period of finalizing the transition. If we are starting to see that a member is going to have to leave the forces as we assign a permanent medical category, we'll really start the planning for what will be undertaken in that transition.